


The Bridge Between

by NewUserNamesAreHard



Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe, M/M, sort of soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-04 14:58:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13367124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NewUserNamesAreHard/pseuds/NewUserNamesAreHard
Summary: Bridges were tricky things. They connected you to your destined partner, but the why or the how were anyone's best guess.And they were fragile things... fragile things that left you collapsed on the sidewalk as your heart beat hammered in your chest and you stared hopelessly at your own reflection.Bridges were a cruel joke the universe had decided to play. And Kaito was absolutely certain he shouldn't have two of them.





	The Bridge Between

**Author's Note:**

> So, for a change of pace I'm starting a multichapter fic that I actually have an outline for instead of just writing whatever pops into my head and hoping it actually goes somewhere. It will take me some time to get everything from my head onto the page, but I hope you enjoy.

Shinichi would have liked to have said he was surprised by his surprise party. Only he wasn’t. At all. He also wasn’t surprised by the fact that Ran had organized the whole thing, and his parents hadn’t bothered to show up. Because as far as deductions go, it was child’s play. It wasn’t even a surprise that it was planned for the day before his 16th birthday. Because Ran wouldn’t dream of planning a party during the school week and she wouldn’t wait until the weekend after on the off chance it would seem like she’d forgotten. And 16th birthdays… they were special.

Sixteenth birthdays were when Bridges formed. It was hard to explain exactly what they were since only 0.5% of the population got them. Or maybe it was that only 0.5% of the population recognized them for what they were. A connection so strong it could defy the laws of physics to bridge the distance between two people. At least that was the description Shinichi had finally settled on.

For his parent’s the Bridge was books. Anytime his mother opened a book, the words of his father’s novels would appear on the page; whatever Yusaku had written most recently covering the actual words on the page. And Yukiko’s words, her reviews, her thoughts, her comments, would appear at the tops of Yusaku’s journals. Or, on occasion, written atop of his works in angry red letters.

Other’s reported the Bridge to be hearing their bridgemate’s voice in their head. Other’s still, shared each other’s physical pain. Some had even reported tasting each other’s food in their mouths.  And Shinichi didn’t believe a word of it.

“God, Ran, I hope you don’t have to listen to him even when he’s not around.”

Shinichi rolled his eyes at Sonoko. She was Ran’s best friend, but after knowing her for almost a decade, he still didn’t like her. “Bridges aren’t real.”

“See?” Sonoko questioned as she looked pleadingly at Ran. “I know you two are practically married already, but 24 hours a day of _that_ is bound to be annoying.”

“Sonoko!” Ran complained, not really sounding like she meant it. “He’s not that bad.”

It was not the first time they’d had the conversation. Or the 10th. Or the 100th. But it was the 6th and hopefully last of the night. If only Shinichi could get the girls to actually leave. “Good night.” He waved as they finally started down the front walkway.

Ran paused for a moment before spinning on her heel to face Shinichi again. “You’re not going back to those cases we pulled you away from are you?” It sounded more like an accusation than a question.

“Just for an hour or so.” Shinichi defended. He had really hoped she’d forgotten about that. Most of the case files on his desk were cold cases that he’d picked up keep himself busy, but the file on top was for an active investigation that had the police inspectors stumped.

Ran gave him the look. The one that said ‘you are too old to be this irresponsible’. “Only an hour.”

“I promise.” Shinichi answered as Ran cocked an eyebrow. She clearly didn’t believe him. And beside her, Sonoko seemed to be having a hard time containing her laughter.

Shinichi smiled reassuringly as he shut the door before Ran could decide to come back and lecture him to sleep. He hadn’t needed the surprise party. And he didn’t need Ran trying to mother him in place of his absent parents. Besides if he really put his mind to it, the case might only take him another hour.

….

Well, that had been wishful thinking. The clock read 6:04am when Shinichi finally pushed the contents of the file back into their envelope. Explaining the crime to the police had taken almost as long as solving it. Next time Shinichi would just wait for Inspector Megure to come in for the day instead of talking to whichever inspector was working the night shift. Rather, whichever inspector was on the Superintendent General’s bad side that week. That _had_ to be why Inspector Shikatsuno was working the night shift.

Shinichi shook his head in attempt to clear the thought from his mind. The time meant he had two options: get 38 minutes of sleep or take a shower. The shower won out as he glanced in a mirror. He could not go to school like that. Ran would know he’d stayed up all night. And she wouldn’t say anything about it. She’d just look at him with disappointment written across her face. Then Sonoko would accuse him of staying up all night and open the floor for Ran to make comments about how he needed to take better care of himself.

Was that really what married couples were like? Shinichi wasn’t sure. He couldn’t exactly use his parents as an example. He was relatively certain they didn’t qualify as normal. Either way, he was wasting time thinking when he should be stripping out of yesterday’s clothes and stepping into the shower.

…

Nearly an hour later, Shinichi blinked unhappily at his reflection as steam clung to the corners of the bathroom mirror. It seemed no matter what he tried his hair was just going to misbehave. He had accepted years ago that he had an unusually resilient cow lick, but this was ridiculous. Why did his hair look like it hadn’t been brushed in days when he’d spent the last 30 minutes trying to tame it?

Giving up he pulled his button down shirt over his shoulders and set to work actually getting ready for school; all the while cursing himself for not going to the grocery store the day before. Not because he needed groceries, though Ran might disagree, but because he didn’t have any coffee. Not even the instant kind. And he simply did not _do_ mornings without coffee. Especially when he knew everyone would be asking him if he’d formed a Bridge.

The answer of course was no. The odds were terrible to begin with, if you believed they were real in the first place, and somehow everyone forgot that it was exceedingly rare for the Bridged to be born on the same day. One member of the pair was always stuck waiting for the other’s birthday. Again, _if_ you believed in Bridges in the first place.

“Shinichi!” Ran called through the front door. “Let’s go! We’re going to be late.”

“Coming!” He called back as he felt heat rising to his cheeks. There was no way she was going to believe he actually slept last night.

-xoXox-

Kaito was **BORED**. Spelled in all capital letters. In bold font. He did not need to sit through Physics 101. He’d been a good sport early on, but the closer they got to the end of the semester the less he cared. He was too bored to even prank the class. For the first couple of months he’d found it entertaining, but the teacher had eventually figured out that each prank showed a (semi)practical application of whatever formula they were learning. It took all the magic out of Kaito’s magic tricks.

He sighed, leaning his head on his palm as he stared out the window. At least his reflection looked just as bored as he did...

Kaito jolted backwards, nearly falling out of his chair.

His reflection didn’t move a millimeter. It just sat there, resting its chin on the wrong hand. Wearing a school uniform Kaito didn’t recognize. Its neatly combed hair a shade too dark and its eyes 3 shades too blue.

“Bakaito!” Aoko growled from just behind him.

Kaito just pointed at the boy in the glass. Whoever had decided to prank him had done an excellent job.

“Kuroba-san?” The teacher questioned as he walked down the aisle towards Kaito.

“So what physics principle is this supposed to be teaching?” Kaito asked, hoping his tone was actually nonchalant. It was bad enough he’d nearly fallen out of his chair. He didn’t need the mystery prankster thinking they’d actually shaken him.

The teacher looked towards the window. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about Kuroba-san. Are you feeling alright?”

“Him.” Kaito emphasized as he shook his hand and pointed.

“You’re reflection?” Aoko asked disbelievingly behind him. “Aoko thinks this is a dumb prank even by your standard Bakaito.”

Why was Kaito the only one who thought it was odd that his reflection wasn’t actually his reflection? He shifted his feet underneath him and stood in a single motion, leaning forward to inspect the image in the glass.

The boy in the glass didn’t move. 

So it was just a hologram or something. Something static. Kaito could deal with that. He dropped back into his seat.

 “May we get back on track now Kuroba-san?” The teacher asked as he shifted his gaze between Kaito and the window.

Kaito felt his poker face clicking into place. So what if there was a projection on the window? “Sorry, Sensei, please continue.” At least Kaito could keep himself entertained for the rest of the class by figuring out how the trick was done.

Or the boy in the glass could sit up straight and stare at him with piercing blue eyes.

Kaito suspected this was what it felt like to be a bug under a magnifying glass.

-xoXox-

“Plectrodera scalator.” Shinichi answered confidently as he inspected the picture of a black and white beetle that was being projected at the front of the classroom. He knew enough to teach the unit on entomology, so he really wasn’t sure why the teacher had bothered to call on him. 

“Wrong, Kudo-kun. It’s a Cottonwood Borer Beetle.” The teacher corrected him. “Try to pay attention.”

“Like I said. It’s a Plectrodera scalator.” 

“No. It’s a Cottonwood Borer Beetle.”

There were moments Shinichi wished he’d talked his parents into letting him take the college entrance exams early. This was one of them. “The scientific name for the Cottonwood Borer Beetle is Plectrodera scalator, Sensei.”

The teacher’s jaw worked silently. And for a moment Shinichi was concerned he’d broken her. She wouldn’t be the first substitute teacher to resign after putting up with him for two days. She rallied though, clicking to the next image on the projector. “And what about this one?”

“Popillia japonica.”

“By which you mean the Japanese Beetle, correct?” Shinichi inclined his head as if to ask if the teacher was serious. “Of course you did.”

After that the substitute moved on to the next inattentive student in the room and Shinichi went back to mulling over the murder of one Hiruma-san and her dog Jasuparu.

-xoXox-

Kaito wasn’t sure how to feel about the boy in the glass resuming his previous posture. But watching him get up from his desk at the end of class wasn’t exactly reassuring. Especially when Aoko decided to clamp her hand down on Kaito’s shoulder without warning. And he would swear he didn’t actually squawk, but it was certainly a close call. “What, Ahouko?”

“What has Kaito been staring at?” She asked earnestly. Almost as if she couldn’t see the boy in the glass walking briskly off to wherever it was he was going without ever leaving the window frame.

“Him. Obviously.” Kaito answered.

“But Aoko only sees her and Kaito’s reflection.”

That didn’t make sense... Surely Aoko wasn’t in on the prank…  “You don’t see him?”

“Who?”

“The guy in the window, with the cowlick and blue uniform.”

Aoko looked confused for a moment before her eyes almost doubled in size. Then the sounds that tumbled from her lips were all but unidentifiable.

“Aoko?”

“Aoko was worried that Kaito would be alone forever.”

“Hey! Why would you…”

“But Bakaito is Bridged! Aoko is so happy for you!”

Wait. What? Kaito’s brain refused to process Aoko’s words. She thought he was Bridged? She thought the boy in the glass was Kaito’s destined partner? But Kaito had been 16 for nearly a year. The Bridged were almost always born within a few months of each other. And what were the odds that Kaito’s partner would look so much like him? Astronomically bad. More than that, Kaito had researched every type of bridge ever reported. Seeing your partner in the mirror was not one of them. There had been one about books that was exclusive to some famous author, but other than that there were really only a couple dozen types of bridges and they all had at least 50 reported cases.

“I’m not Bridged.” Kaito announced with a confidence he didn’t feel. Didn’t want to feel. Because being Bridged was something he’d always kind of hoped for.  But if this was his Bridge... It was supposed to be with Aoko.

-xoXox-

Shinichi walked through the bathroom door and straight to the sink to rinse off his face. He couldn’t quite place the feeling that had been plaguing him since just after class had started, but it felt almost as if he was being watched. That might even be accurate. He’d caught more than a few interested glances in his direction. Not that he could blame them. Teenagers were for the most part romantics, happy to believe in Bridges.

Keeping his eyes closed, Shinichi counted to 10 as rivulets of water ran down his face. Just because he didn’t sleep last night didn’t mean he could start taking his exhaustion out on his classmates. Or the substitute teacher. Even if it was tempting. It was a miracle Ran and Sonoko hadn’t already deduced his sleepless status with his bird’s nest of hair. Which was still…

Shinichi stopped breathing. That wasn’t him. The eyes that looked back at him from the mirror weren’t his. The curve of the jaw, the bridge of the nose, the length of the earlobes, none of them were right. That wasn’t his reflection. But the boy the next sink over was reflected perfectly in the same mirror.

Also, Shinichi was 99.99% certain that Ran wasn’t standing behind him with her hand on his shoulder.

The image of Ran vanished as she released his almost reflection’s shoulder. Then it reappeared a moment later as she hugged his almost reflection so hard that it looked like it was having trouble breathing. Only she wasn’t Ran either. It was close. The differences all existed in the most minor of details. But the boy wasn’t Shinichi and the girl wasn’t Ran.

Shinichi swallowed harshly. There were only so many conclusions he could draw with the available information. For instance, Bridges were real. And he had one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what do you think? You guys like the basic premise?


End file.
